The Impact of Displacement on Tribal Communities: A Reading of Rajam Krishnan's When the Kurunji Blooms through Michael M. Cernea's Impoverishment Risks and Reconstruction Model

Abstract

The clutches of displacement are one among the many haunting issues that present-day societies face owing to postcolonial atrocities, disasters, and various development projects. Having been uprooted from their familiar surroundings means a multi-pronged disaster at every level for the societies facing such an experience. Disruption in lifestyle patterns, social networks and cultural security threatens the foundations of a community therefore producing conflicts at various layers. From prehistoric times Adivasis' existence has been devoid of mainland interferences due to which their voices are unable to reach national attention in the last few decades. When it comes to displacement of Adivasis, the hue and cry is far less compared to the other societies facing similar experiences. Rehabilitation is also in a state of lack. The distortion that might fall on Adivasi communities at the dawn of the development project can be seen in When the Kurunji Blooms by Rajam Krishnan. The novel pictures the fall of the Badagas, a community native to the Nigiri Hills, at the advent of the hydroelectric project that brings electricity, water, and education by shattering communal values. This paper attempts to read the novel along with the anthropologist Michael M. Cernea’s Impoverishment Risks and Reconstruction Model (IRR) as the model offers multiple critical lenses for textual analysis.